Asia

2012

To many in the Indian media community, the arrest of independent
journalist Syed Mohammad Kazmi by the Delhi police's Special Cell on March 6
for his alleged involvement in a bombing brings back troublesome memories.

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China media analysts are looking to two significant events
to shape coverage this month: The anniversary of a failed uprising in Tibet,
and the annual meetings of China's top political bodies, the National People's
Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing.
Journalists at work in both areas attracted coverage of their own today--but from
vastly different angles.

Village elections taking place this weekend in southern
Guangdong province's Wukan illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of China's media
control. Censorship measures have not prevented strong domestic and
international coverage of the democratic process. But has official tolerance of
dissenting views increased since leaders cracked down on the attempted Jasmine
revolution last year? Or is Wukan not a real challenge to one-party rule, and
therefore OK to write about?

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Beijing-based blogger Woeser reported on her website Invisible Tibet today that she has been
confined to her residence by Beijing public security officers who are stationed
outside her home. Woeser, an outspoken critic of Chinese government policies in
Tibet, has written about a series of recent self-immolations among
monks and arrests
of writers in western China.

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On the evening of March 1, 2010, Arun Singhaniya, owner
of Janakpur Today newspaper and
Janakpur Today Radio, stepped out of a prayer service during a holy celebration
in Janakpur, Nepal's second largest city. A gunman on a motorcycle shot
and killed the news proprietor, making him the second person affiliated
with the Janakpur Today news group to be murdered within a year.

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Two months into 2012, all-too-familiar stories are emerging from
China's troubled minority regions, Tibet and Xinjiang. Following riots against
Chinese rule in 2008 and 2009, violence and its corollaries--increased
security and censorship--have become commonplace. Independent bloggers and
journalists who cover the unrest pay a high price: Over half the 27 journalists
documented by CPJ in Chinese
prisons on December 1, 2011, came
from ethnic minorities. Now we're bracing ourselves for the next wave of arrests.

On February 11, two Bangladeshi television
journalists, Meherun Runi and her husband Golam Mustofa Sarowar, were murdered
in their Dhaka home. Their 5-year-old son found their
bodies. No arrests have yet been made and no motive has been publicly disclosed,
although police claim they know why the couple was killed. Journalists have
plenty of reason to be skeptical, and they staged a nationwide strike today to
call attention to the case.

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Tuesday marks the next step in a legal faceoff between Malaysian
authorities and the well-known political cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, also
known as Zunar. Hearings
will resume in civil lawsuit filed by Zunar that challenges the legality of his arrest and
detention in September 2010. Malaysian police arrested him hours
ahead of the scheduled launch of a new book of political cartoons, Cartoon-o-phobia. He was held until the
next day on the accusation that his book violated the country's repressive Sedition Act. Although
he was released without being formally charged, police served a search warrant
at his office and seized dozens of copies of his book.

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In her final hours, Marie Colvin gave this damning report to CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Bravery, generosity, and commitment: These are the three
characteristics of Marie
Colvin that have surfaced, again and again, in the many tributes spoken and
published since the veteran Sunday Times
reporter was killed
Wednesday in the besieged city of Homs by Syrian forces.